Mother makes 200km emergency trip across rural Madagascar to save baby

Health carers there recognised that she needed a more sophisticated level of care and called an ambulance from the Androy Regional Referral Hospital, a journey across a region laced with unyielding roads.Young mothers recover in the maternity ward of the Androy Regional Referral Hospital .“Many pregnant women, perhaps 60 to 70 per cent, who arrive here have already lost their baby because they have sought medical help too late,” he said, “but we have a 100 per cent success rate of healthy births, either natural or Caesarian, for those mothers who arrive on time, as we have a range of care options we can offer them.”The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.UNFPA’s Dr. Sadoscar Hakizimana, a surgeon who has delivered dozens of babies by Caesarian section at the hospital, believes that a concentration of maternal health services is the key to saving more lives.The chilling words of Samueline Razafindravao, who had to make the harrowing hours-long trip to the nearest specialist hospital in Ambovombe town in the Androy region of southern Madagascar after it became clear she might lose her child if she did not seek urgent medical attention.The agency also supports a surgeon who carries out Caesarean sections as well as obstetric fistula surgery as well as two midwives who help with delivering babies and family planning. It has also provided incubators for premature babies and birthing kits for mothers.

Lack of ambulances

“I tried to give birth at home because I was worried about the expense of going to hospital,” she said, “but I knew I was having too many difficulties, so I went to the local health centre.”“I thought I was going to lose my baby and die on the journey to hospital.”In a country where many babies are born at home and where a traditional midwife may be paid a chicken to deliver a baby, the decision she had to make was a momentous one.

And UN Development Programme (UNDP) has worked with the hospital to install solar panels to ensure that the equipment essential to keeping people alive is not rendered inoperable by the sometimes erratic power supply from the grid.

And UN Development Programme (UNDP) has worked with the hospital to install solar panels to ensure that the equipment essential to keeping people alive is not rendered inoperable by the sometimes erratic power supply from the grid.

And UN Development Programme (UNDP) has worked with the hospital to install solar panels to ensure that the equipment essential to keeping people alive is not rendered inoperable by the sometimes erratic power supply from the grid.